The process of orienting seed corn for sampling purposes has been predominantly accomplished using manual techniques. Automatic orientation by magnetic attenuation is shown and described in U.S. application Ser. No. 11/939,380 filed Nov. 13, 2007 and Ser. No. 11/939,402 filed Nov. 13, 2007. Automatic orientation by magnetic attenuation has many advantages as described and set forth in the aforementioned applications. Thus, a need has been identified in the art for providing apparatuses and methods for applying a magnetically active coating in a medium to high throughput environment to an ear of corn to attract, position, orient, and secure kernels by magnetic attenuation.
Current apparatuses and methods for coating an ear of corn require the ear of corn to be handled extensively during the coating process. Therefore, a need in the art has been identified for providing apparatuses and methods for coating an ear of corn that does not require extensive handling in order to adequately coat ears of corn with a coating for use in subsequent applications facilitating handling of the individual kernels.
Magnetically active coatings, such as iron-based paints are inherently high-viscosity liquids. Due to viscosity, application of these coatings can be problematic. Therefore, a need has been identified in the art to provide apparatuses and methods to evenly coat an ear of corn with a magnetically active coating.
Coated ears of corn require time for drying before being handled or put within an envelope or other container for storing and identifying the ear of corn. Existing apparatuses and methods do not provide for tracking and indexing multiple ears of corn while drying. Therefore, a need has been identified in the art to provide an apparatus and method for drying multiple ears of corn for tracking, identifying, and indexing the ears of corn after being dried.